Seventies and Eighties were the best time to bring up baby

A new report has revealed today's mums think the 70s and 80s were the best decades to bring up a baby.

The mums polled in the Changing Face of Motherhood report, published today to coincide with International Women's Day, found that young mums think the 1970s and 80s were less pressured times in which to be a mum.

The study also discovered over a third of mums (34%) think they have less time for themselves than their mothers did, with most (18%) having just three to four hours free time each week (which works out to just a measly 26 minutes a day!)

64% of these mums said the lack of 'me time' was thanks to the demands of work, whilst 29% said the pressure to be a perfect mum meant they felt they had less time for themselves.

And the age old guilt of work/life balance left 88% of mothers feeling bad about how much time they spent with their little ones. No surprises there!

The report, which was commissioned by P&G in conjunction with SIRC (Social Issues Research Centre), set out explore the changing role of British mums across the generations. Other findings showed:

• 47% of mums rely on their mums as their most valued source of advice and support.
• 20% of mums think that living closer to their mum is the single most important thing that would improve their quality of life as a mother.
• 68% of today's mums use technology like Skype, texting and online social networks to communicate with other mums, whilst just a meager 17% who organise face-to-face meetings with their support network of mums.
• 63% of mums think online communities have helped empower them as a collective group.
• 49% of mums believe they spend more active time with their children than their mothers did with them when they were at the same life-stage.